Everything's coming up roses..........

So how come I do all the hard work and these two get the deckchairs? Something's gone wrong somewhere!
I'm so excited, we finally have a nice rose in our garden. When we moved in this rose was covered in blackspot and had about three leaves so last year I hacked it down to the ground and a miracle has happened. It's come back so healthily and the roses are a much prettier pink than before, I love it!

Finally the garden seems to be taking off a bit. The children and I spent all day yesterday out there, them in the paddling pool and me grafting away, and I have to say it's starting to look pretty good. It's not a big space, about 50' by 20' and half of it is filled with climbing frames, scooters and various bits of "works in progress" (ie. tat), but it's enough for me. I have fantasies (hold on!) that I'd love to have acres of garden but in reality I'd never have time to dedicate to it and it'd just be another thing to get stressed about!

I have lots of ideas for my perfect garden but that will come when the children are older, for now we share it and they love it out there, although I think they preferred it as a building site when they could dig wherever they liked! Jack has his own little bit planted with delphiniums, stocks a clematis and the obligatory sunflower and he now loves "Gardeners World" - what have we done to him?

It's been a fantastic weekend. On Saturday I had a whole day child-free - yes, a WHOLE day! Andrea and I went to the open studios day in Stroud where artists open their houses for the weekend to the general public. The sun shone all day, we went to Nailsworth for lunch and a bit of shopping and then we wandered around the most amazing houses in the most amazing places all day. You know when you just love every minute of a day, we were like two schoolkids, I think the lack of children made us a bit giddy! Ian looked after the children all day and when I got back they were bathed and in bed - BLISS! It was something Andrea and I both needed, and my batteries are recharged, I'm inspired to create, now all I need is a studio - hmmmm!

Couldn't take any photos of the houses as I felt a bit awkward asking so the only one I got is of where we had lunch, and it's not a good one at that - never mind!

For some unknown reason, blogger has gone completely haywire tonight - has anyone else out there had problems?